First question... wall-mounted heat shield?

[aries339]

OK First off, let me say I am going to pick up an IR thermometer later today!

In the meanwhile, I'm curious what setups people have done with simple wall-mounted heat shields. I was thinking about a shield hung on ceramic spacers.

The wall behind my stove gets very hot just above the collar. I know "very hot" is subjective so I won't panic until I take an IR reading... but it seems like the paint gets soft. That is, if I'm not imagining it. It's a very old house with many layers of paint...

Thanks y'all!

~Ty

 

[shawneyboy]

Ceramic spacers would certainly work, others have used metal studs and even tubing for the spacer. Key is to leave gap at top and bottom so that you get that air movement.

 

[aries339]

Maybe a stovepipe shield would do the trick...???

I'm already using double-walled, but another shield wouldn't hurt, would it?

 

[shawneyboy]

Wouldn't hurt thats for sure. May be overkill but you can never be too safe.

 

[SteveKG]

I used some half-inch elec. conduit, cut into one-inch pieces. Just because I had it lying around, scraps. It was free, easy to cut, and works fine. Well, it wasn't free, as I'd bought the full lengths originally. But you know what I mean.

One heat shield was large and awkward to hang, so I used some epoxy to glue the spacers on the back of the shield. Just to make the job of hanging it easier. In other words, I predrilled some holes, marked for where the studs in the wall are, then glued the spacers over the holes. Worked fine.

For the shields [I have several stoves], I used some steel I had lying around. Don't know the gauge, but it's heavy--maybe 18 or 20?? I painted them with hi-temp paint.

 

[begreen]

If the wall shield is made of cement board, you can cut off some 3" wide, long strips off of it, double them up and make cement board furring strips out of them to hold the wall shield 1" off the wall.

 

[nola mike]

I just did this with my last install--posted yesterday. I used iron pipe cut as spacers (it was a bear to cut with an 18v sawzall and quickly dulling blades...). Also, the IR thermos don't work well on reflective surfaces. My heat shield is now registering 500+ degrees...with my hand resting on it. Guess that means it's doing its job?

 

[begreen]

Something doesn't sound right. If you put your hand on a 500 deg surface you would be counting blisters right now. Did you mean stove top at 500F?

 

[nola mike]

yeah, stove top temp = 500', but the point was that the IR gun pointed at the reflective surface also reads 500'--when clearly it isn't, and is picking up the reflected heat from the stove.

 

[Creekyphil]

My guess is that the IR radiation is just reflecting from the stove to the shield and then into your thermometer. If you can imagine that the sheild is a large mirror, when you aim at where the reflection of the stove would be, you should be getting a reading of the stove temp (give or take some quantum effects). Try to aim somewhere on the sheild where the reflection would not be. If you hold the thermometer above the stove, and aim out toward one of the far corners, that should give you a reading of the radition emitted by the shield itself.

 

[nola mike]

My guess is that the IR radiation is just reflecting from the stove to the shield and then into your thermometer. If you can imagine that the sheild is a large mirror, when you aim at where the reflection of the stove would be, you should be getting a reading of the stove temp (give or take some quantum effects). Try to aim somewhere on the sheild where the reflection would not be. If you hold the thermometer above the stove, and aim out toward one of the far corners, that should give you a reading of the radition emitted by the shield itself.

that was my point--that my shield is doing what it's supposed to be doing, that is reflecting my stove heat. in general though, i think it's tough to get a good reading on a reflective surface because your reading is probably more related to whatever is being reflected by the surface.